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The German name of the town ("Wartenburg") has its origins from the town of Wartenburg (Elbe).[1] In Polish the town was known historically as Wartembork, Wartenberg, Wartenbergk, Wathberg, Bartenburg, Warperc, Wasperc, Wartbór or Wartbórz. The modern name Barczewo is honouring Polish national activist who fought against Prussian oppression of Poles in Warmia Walenty Barczewski (1865–1928) and was given in December 1946 after the area was transferred to Poland.[2] It was briefly named Nowowiejsk in September 1946.

The town was first located in 1325 but was soon after destroyed by Lithuanians. The rebuild town was granted city rights in 1364. In 1466, after the Second Peace of Toruń, the town, then known as "Wartberg",[2] became part of Kingdom of Poland. In 1772, after the First partition of Poland it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia. The local monastery was secularised in 1810, in 1819/1820 Prussian authorities decided to close down the monastery that was stronghold of Polishness led by Tyburcjusz Bojarzynowski. After the death of Bojarzynowski it has been used has a prison since 1834.[1][3] According to W. Zenderowski this was part of Prussian repressions against Poles as the monastery was particularly hated by Prussian authorities for being a center of Polish resistance.[4][unreliable source?] A Jewish community started to exist after 1815, a Synagogue was built in 1847, a confessional cemetery existed.[5] In the East Prussian plebiscite of 1920 3,020 inhabitants voted to remain in Weimar GermanEast Prussia, 140 votes supported Poland.[2]

In World War II the small remaining Jewish community was murdered in the Holocaust.[5] The town was occupied by Soviet troops without a fight on 31 January 1945. On 22 May 1945 the town, now destroyed at 60%, was handed over to Polish officials.

According to German statistics Poles constituted 72% of population in 1825 and 62% in 1861;[6]Gerard Labuda gives the number of 1500 Poles and 590 Germans living in the city in 1825[7] During the January Uprising in Russian Empire, Barczewo was the local centre of supplying medicine, food and even firearms to Polish rebels, with the Polish society in the city becoming active in war effort and led by August Sokołowski[8] In 1885 a mass rally was organised by Poles, demanding among others that Polish children should be allowed to use their language in education[9] In 1886 a bookstore with Polish books and publications was opened in the town and came into conflict with German authorities who wanted it to remove Polish language signs[10] In the interwar era the town was the residence of the fictional Kuba spod Wartemborka, a pseudonym of a figure in Polish press in Warmia created by Severyn Pieniężny which ridiculed Germanisation efforts against Poles in the region.[11][12] Polish organisations continued to thrive in the city, up until Second World War; as Nazi party was elected to power in Germany, repressions intensified, eventually both Poles and Jews were classified as subhuman and targeted for extermination and many Polish activists were either imprisoned or murdered in Nazi concentration camps and prisons.[2]